Sony to Customers: Kill Yourselves

By consumerist.comMarch 9, 2006

Sony might want to start rethinking their subversive ad strategy. First, they came under fire for paying street hooligans to spray paint their logos on private property. And now, in London, they are posting advertisements openly encouraging their customers to kill themselves.

To the left, you’ll see an advertisement for the Sony Playstation 2 that — up until recently — was on display at the London Picadilly station. In a blood red font juxtaposed against the blank infinity of death, Sony encourages its viewers to toss themselves underneath the sharp, churning wheels of an oncoming subway car.

We’re not advertising geniuses or anything, but it seems to us that — unless you’re marketing exclusively to goths — there’s better strategies to get new customers than by trying to convince them to commit suicide. Coming up next: Sony gives shotguns to hopped-up Vietnam Vets covered in invisible insects and pays them to begin shooting random people in the face while screaming “Playstation!”

“We take out ten customers, make it look like ghetto kids, and we’ve got street cred coming out our asses. I bet we shift our inventory within 24 hours. I remember when you could always rely on those little street kids to pop a few people for the latest Nikes. Now people get mugged for Reeboks, for Adidas — for generics, for Christ’s sake.”